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December 29, 2013

Functioning of the NHRC Critically Examined: Has it been effective?

Independent People’s Tribunal on the Functioning of the
National Human Rights Commission of India, 14-16th December, New Delhi

NAMHHR
member, Human Rights Law Network organized an Independent Peoples’ Tribunal jointly with All India Network of NGOs and Individuals
working with National / State Human Rights
Institutions on the functioning of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on the occasion of the 20 years of Paris Principles [1993] and 20 years of the Protection of Human Rights Act [1993] and 20 years of the Vienna Conference [1993].

The
three day event included sessions on -NHRC’s compliance to UN standards, Police
encounter, custodial torture, custodial death, Killings and torture by armed
forces , Attack on human rights defenders , Communalism , Violation of Women’s
Rights, Dalit issues, Tribal Rights, Environment, housing and displacement ,Health
rights, Child rights and Disability. Each session included a section in which the
response of NHRC to their issue was presented to the panelists.

NAMHHR
convenor,
was invited to be a panelist in the session on reproductive rights
violation. She began by recounting the meeting with the UN-Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Health who came to
India in 2010. Although an NRHC member attended the meeting, yet the
NRHC did not take the recommendations of the UNSR seriously. Recounting
the submissions made by NAMHHR to the NHRC in connection with the
Barwani cases (Madhya Pradesh) and Godda cases (Jharkhand), although the
NHRC filed a case, no real action resulted; this despite the regular
follow done by NAMHHR. This session also saw the presentation of a
testimonial by a victim of forced sterilization from
Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh), supported in her efforts to seek justice by
NAMHHR member HealthWatch Forum, UP. The HealthWatch Forum had filed
her case with NHRC on 21st of December 2012 and the NHRC in
turn forwarded it to the State Human Rights Commission Uttar Pradesh,
which has not taken any concrete action on it as yet.

However
appreciating the initiative made by the NHRC in the Universal Periodic
Review 2, the NAMHHR convenor lauded their efforts at designing a
monitoring tool to monitor the implementation of the recommendation made
by member countries to the Government of India. However she stressed
that much more needs to be done by this important commission to protect
the human right of the citizens of our country.

Aditi
Sood, Nibedita Phukan and Leena Uppal also attended the event on behalf of
NAMHHR.